Introduction.
THESE stories are said to have been related by Gotama Buddha for the purpose of conveying to his hearers moral and religious lessons and the lessons of common sense.
Gotama Buddha was born nearly twenty-five centuries ago in the city of Kapila, in Northeast India. Kapila was the principal city of the Sakya tribe, and his father was king of the tribe.Gotamawas his family name.BuddhameansAwakenedorEnlightened, that is to say, awakened or enlightened to the cause and the cure of human suffering.
The Buddhist Scriptures tell us that when Gotama was born, the angels rejoiced and sang. An aged wise man inquired: “Why doth the company of angels rejoice?” They replied: “He that shall become Buddha is born in the village of the Sakyas for the welfare and happiness of mankind; therefore are we joyful and exceeding glad.”
The wise man hastened to the king’s house, and said: “Where is the child? I, too, wish to see him.” They showed him the child. When he saw the child, he rejoiced and was exceeding glad. And he took him in his arms, and said: “Without an equal is he! foremost among men!” Then, because he was an oldman, and knew that he was soon to die, he became sorrowful and wept tears.
Said the Sakyas: “Will any harm come to the child?” “No,” replied the wise man, “this child shall one day become Buddha; out of love and pity for mankind he shall set in motion the Wheel of Religion; far and wide shall his religion be spread. But as for me, I have not long to live; before these things shall come to pass, death will be upon me. Therefore am I stricken with woe, overwhelmed with sorrow, afflicted with grief.”
Seven days after Gotama was born, his mother died, and he was brought up by his aunt and step-mother. When he was nineteen years old, he married his own cousin. For ten years he lived a life of ease, in the enjoyment of all the comforts and luxuries which riches and high position could give him. When he was twenty-nine years old, a change came over him.
Formany centuries, it has been a common belief in India that when a human being dies, he is at once born again. If he has lived a good life, he will be born again on earth as the child of a king or of a rich man, or in one of the heavens as a god. If he has lived an evil life, he will be born again as a ghost, or as an animal, or in some place of torment.
According to this belief, every person has been born and has lived and died so many times that it would be impossible to count the number. Indeed, so far back into the past does this series of lives extend that it is impossible even to imagine a beginning of the series. What is more to the point, in each of these lives every person has endured much suffering and misery.
Said the Buddha: “In weeping over the death of sons and daughters and other dear ones, every person, in the course of his past lives, has shed tears more abundant than all the water contained in the four great oceans.”
And again: “The bones left by a single person in the course of his past lives would form a pile so huge that were all the mountains to be gathered up and piled in a heap, that heap of mountains would appear as nothing beside it.”
And again: “The head of every person has been cut off so many times in the course of his past lives, either as a human being or as an animal, as to cause him to shed blood more abundant than all the water contained in the four great oceans.”
Nothing more terrible than this can be imagined. Yet for many centuries it has been a common belief in India. Wise men taught that there was a way ofescape, a way of salvation. If a person wished to avoid repeated lives of suffering and misery, he must leave home and family and friends, become a monk, and devote himself to fasting, bodily torture, and meditation.
TheBuddhist Scriptures tell us that when Gotama was twenty-nine years old, he saw for the first time an Old Man, a Sick Man, a Dead Man, and a Monk. The thought that in the course of his past lives he had endured old age, sickness, and death, times without number, terrified him, and he resolved to become a monk.
Leaving home and wife and son, he devoted himself for six years to fasting, bodily torture, and meditation. Finally he became convinced that fasting and bodily torture were not the way of salvation, and abandoned the struggle. One night he had a wonderful experience. First he saw the entire course of his past lives. Next he saw the fate after death of all living beings. Finally he came to understand the cause of human suffering and the cure for it.
Thus it was that he became Buddha, the Awakened, the Enlightened. He saw that the cause of rebirth and suffering was craving for worldly pleasures and life and riches. He saw that if this craving were uprooted, rebirth and suffering would come toan end. He saw that this craving could be uprooted by right belief, right living, and meditation.
Forforty-five years the Buddha journeyed from place to place, preaching and teaching. He founded an order of monks and nuns, and won many converts. He lived to be eighty years old. Missionaries carried his teachings from India to Ceylon and Burma and China and Tibet and Japan. In a few hundred years the religion of the Buddha had spread over the whole of Asia. Hundreds of millions of human beings have accepted his teachings.
In at least two respects, the teachings of the Buddha were quite remarkable. In the first place, he insisted on the virtue of moderation. He urged upon his hearers to avoid the two extremes of a life devoted to fasting and self-torture, and a life of self-indulgence. In the second place, he taught that a man must love his neighbor as himself, returning good for evil and love for hatred. But this was not all. He taught men to love all living creatures without respect of kind or person. He taught men not to injure or kill any living creature, whether a human being or an animal, even in self-defense. All war, according to the teaching of the Buddha, is unholy.
In the course of time it came to be believed thatGotama had become Buddha as the fruit of good deeds performed in countless previous states of existence, especially deeds of generosity. At any time, had he so desired, he might have uprooted craving for worldly pleasures and life and riches by meditation, and thus have escaped the sufferings of repeated states of existence. But this he deemed an unworthy course. Out of pity and compassion and friendliness for living creatures, he preferred to be reborn again and again, to suffer and to die again and again, in order that, by the accumulated merit of good works, he might himself become enlightened and thus be able to enlighten others.
In comparison with the career of the Future Buddha, devoted to the performance of good works, unselfish, generous to the point of sacrificing his own body and blood,—the career of the monk, isolated from the world, selfish, seeking by meditation to uproot craving for worldly pleasures and life and riches, seemed low and mean. The disciple began to imitate his Master. Thus began the Higher Career or Vehicle of Mahāyāna or Catholic Buddhism, as distinguished from the Lower Career or Vehicle of the more primitive Hīnayāna Buddhism of the Pāli texts. Thus did the quest of Buddhahood supplant the quest of Nibbāna. This development took place long before the beginning of the Christian era.
Gotama Buddhamade frequent use of similes, allegories, parables, fables, and other stories, to illustrate his teachings. His example was imitated by his followers, and in the course of time hundreds and hundreds of stories were attributed to him on general principles. Most of these stories were, in their original form, nothing but simple folk-tales, many of them of great antiquity. Parallels and variants are found in the Mahābhārata, the Panchatantra, Bidpai’s Fables, the Hitopadesha, the Kathāsaritsāgara, and other fiction-collections, especially those of the Jains.
Of the twenty-six stories contained in this book, of eight of which two versions are given, eleven stories or versions of stories (6, 11, 12, 13, 16, 17a, 18a, 19a, 20a, 23a, 24a) are taken from the oldest canonical texts of the Buddhist Sacred Scriptures. Of these eleven stories, the first nine are said to have been related by Gotama himself, the last two being attributed to the Buddhist sage Kumāra Kassapa. It is highly probable that the tradition embodied in the texts regarding these eleven stories is correct. We may therefore feel quite certain that such remarkable parables asBrahmadatta and the prince(6),Blind men and elephant(13), andThe birds(16) were actually related by Gotama himself, insubstantially the same form as that in which we now have them. It is not at all unlikely that such a parable asBrahmadatta and Mallika(8) was also related by Gotama, but of this we cannot be certain.
The approximate date of these old canonical texts is now well established. Numerous references to the Buddhist Scriptures in the Bhābrā edict of Asoka, about 250B.C., and in the canonical workKathāvatthu, of about the same date, amply justify the statement that the texts from which these eleven stories are taken are, in their present form, at least three or four centuries anterior to the Christian era. It may interest the reader to know that these texts, originating in North India in the lifetime of Gotama, were handed down by oral tradition for many generations, were reduced to canonical form within a century or two of the death of Gotama, were carried to Ceylon in the third centuryB.C., were written down for the first time in the first centuryB.C., and were copied and recopied on palm-leaves by successive generations of scribes until comparatively recent times.
The rest of the stories (except 25 and 26) are taken from theBook of the Buddha’s Previous ExistencesorJātaka Book. This remarkable work, which also originated in North India, relates inmixed prose and verse the experiences of the Future Buddha in each of 550 states of existence previous to his rebirth as Gotama. The received text of this work represents a recension made in Ceylon early in the fifth centuryA.D., but much of the material is demonstrably many centuries older. For example, the stanzas rank as canonical Scripture, older versions of some of the stories occur in the canonical texts, and many of the stories (including 4 and 7 and 22) are illustrated by Bharahat sculptures of the third centuryB.C.Stories 25 and 26 are alsoJātakatales, adapted from C. H. Tawney’s translation of theKathāsaritsāgara.
Forthe most part, theJātakastories purport to relate incidents in Gotama’s previous states of existence as a human being. For example, as Prince Noble-heart (1), he triumphs over his enemies and succeeds to the throne of his father through the kindly offices of a grateful elephant. As a Brahman’s son (2), he befriends in turn a pampered prince, a snake, a rat, and a parrot, with the result that he is basely betrayed by the prince, but treated with profound gratitude by the three animals.
As King Brahmadatta (8), he overcomes anger with kindness, evil with good, the stingy with gifts, and the liar with truth. As Prince Five-weapons(9), he overcomes the giant ogre Sticky-hair with the Weapon of Knowledge. As a Brahman’s son (17b), he frees his younger brother from the power of Jewel-neck, the dragon-king. As a Brahman’s son (18b), he teaches friendliness for all living beings. As a caravan-leader (24b), he protects his companions from a troop of man-eating ogres. As Jīmūta-vāhana, prince of the fairies (26), he offers the sacrifice of his body and blood for the welfare of all living beings.
Several of the stories purport to relate incidents in Gotama’s previous states of existence as an animal. For example, as a generous elephant (3), he gives his tusks to an ungrateful forester who has betrayed him. As a merciful elephant (4), he spares the life of a tiny quail. As a wise quail (5), he avoids the snares of a fowler. As a brave lion (15), he averts the destruction of a host of frightened animals. As a wise partridge (19b), he serves as the preceptor of a monkey and an elephant. As a wise quail (20b), he outwits a hawk. As a wise boar (25), he offers the sacrifice of his body and blood.
Howdid the Future Buddha come to be identified with the hero of each of these stories? The stories themselves give us the answer. For example, in thestory ofBrahmadatta and the prince(6), we read that a high-minded prince generously forgave the murderer of his father and mother, returning good for evil and love for hatred. In this, the oldest form of the story, the Future Buddha is not even mentioned. But in a later form of the story,Jātaka371, we are expressly told that the generous prince was none other than the Future Buddha.
Stories 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, and 24 illustrate the same process in a very striking way. Of each of these stories we have two versions, an earlier version from a canonical source, and a later version from an uncanonical source. It will be observed that in the older versions the Future Buddha is not mentioned at all. But in the later versions he is identified in turn with a wise ascetic (17b, 18b), a wise partridge (19b), a wise quail (20b), an honest dicer (23b), and a wise caravan-leader (24b).
Originally a simple folk-tale, each of these stories has been converted into a birth-story by the simple literary device of identifying the highest and noblest character in the story with the Future Buddha. This, of course, was a comparatively easy matter, for the Future Buddha, in his previous states of existence, was believed to have exhibited the qualities of wisdom, courage, and generosity,and there are few of the stories in which at least one of the characters does not exhibit one or another of these qualities.
The attempt to introduce the Future Buddha into the stories is not always carried out in a way to satisfy or convince the reader. Thus, as an honest dicer (23b), he violates Buddhist teaching by administering deadly poison to his companion, a dishonest dicer. The latter must not, of course, be allowed to die. The honest dicer is therefore made to administer an emetic to his companion and to admonish him. As a wise quail (20b), he again violates Buddhist teaching by saving his own life at the expense of his enemy’s life. Here the inconsistency is allowed to stand, and the story is used to illustrate the folly of walking in forbidden ground.
In the case of some of the stories, the figure of the Future Buddha is, so to speak, lugged in by the heels. For example, little or nothing is gained by identifying the antelope caught in a trap (7) with the Future Buddha. As a Brahman’s pupil (10), and as a king’s counsellor (14), the Future Buddha offers only a word of advice. As a trader (21), and as a wise man (22), he is merely a spectator, and contents himself with remarking on the folly of misdirected effort. It is quite clear that in the case ofthese stories also we are dealing with simple folk-tales which have undergone only slight modification.
Someof the stories have traveled all over the world. In the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, many of them found their way into the highways and byways of European literature. With Story 1,The grateful elephant, compare the story of Androclus and the lion, Aesop’s fable of the Lion and the Shepherd, and Gesta Romanorum 104. With Story 2,Grateful animals and ungrateful man, compare R. Schmidt, Panchatantra i. 9; C. H. Tawney, Kathāsaritsāgara ii. 103; E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 25; A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 26; Gesta Romanorum 119; and the following stories in Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen: 17 Die weisse Schlange, 60 Die zwei Brüder, 62 Die Bienenkönigin, 85 Die Goldkinder, 107 Die beiden Wanderer, 126 Ferenand getrü und Ferenand ungetrü, 191 Das Meerhäschen. For additional parallels, see J. Bolte und G. Polivka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm, Märchen 17, 62, 191.
With Story 3,Elephant and ungrateful forester, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 28. With Story 4,Quail, crow, fly, frog, and elephants, compare R. Schmidt, Panchatantra i. 18. Variantsof Stories 5 and 7 form the frame-story of Panchatantra ii. With Story 5,Quails and fowler, compare C. H. Tawney, Kathāsaritsāgara ii. 48; J. Hertel, Tantrākhyāyika iii. 11; also Aesop’s fable of the Falconer and the Birds. With Story 7,Antelope, woodpecker, tortoise, and hunter, compare Mahābhārata xii. 138; C. H. Tawney, Kathāsaritsāgara i. 296; also Aesop’s fable of the Lion and the Mouse. With Story 6,Brahmadatta and the prince, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 10; also Jātaka 371. With Story 8,Brahmadatta and Mallika, compare Mahābhārata iii. 194.
With Story 9,A Buddhist Tar-baby, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 89 and 410; also the well-known story in Joel Chandler Harris, Uncle Remus, His Songs and His Sayings. Story 10,Vedabbha and the thieves, is the original of Chaucer’s Pardoner’s Tale; compare also A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 19. With Story 13,Blind men and elephant, compare E. Chavannes, Cinq Cents Contes 86. With Story 14, Part 1,Gem, hatchet, drum, and bowl, compare Grimm, Kinder- und Hausmärchen: 36 Tischchen deck dich, Goldesel, und Knüppel aus dem Sack; 54 Der Ranzen, das Hütlein, und das Hörnlein. For additional parallels, see Bolte-Polivka.
With Story 15,A Buddhist Henny-Penny, compare A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 22; also the well-known children’s story of the same name. With Story 19,Partridge, monkey, and elephant, compare A. Schiefner, Tibetan Tales 24. With Story 21,How not to kill an insect, compare Aesop’s fable of the Bald Man and the Fly. For an interesting account of the history of some of the stories, see W. A. Clouston,Popular Tales and Fictions, as follows: Story 2: i. 223-241. Story 9: i. 133-154. Story 10: ii. 379-407. Story 14: i. 110-122. Story 15: i. 289-313. Story 21: i. 55-57.